Reviews by littlestlassloves

I'm about a third of the way into this project and so far there have been a lot of really weird albums, but mainly difficult-weird. This was oddly accessible-weird.

There were parts that made me think of Harry Nilsson or Elton John or The Beatles and then there were other parts that sounded like they might have been created by someone from another planet. There were also ducks quacking, dogs growling, creepy laughter and someone twanging a ruler resting on a desk.

"There is cause and effect
There's a reason I'm so erect"

Fuckin hell, Todd.

After being reminded that this was the second Todd Rundgren album we'd been exposed to on this list, a fact I had completely forgotten, I went back to check my previous review. I basically said it would have got a higher mark if there was less of it.... Yeah, that.

It's actually a 2.5, but for the sheer balls of the man and because the layering and production on a lot these tracks is absolutely top notch:

3/5

There's a very long review of this album on the site (correctly) taking about the optics of a song where someone repeatedly shouts "Smack my bitch up". I remember there being some controversy over it at the time (although mostly because The Prodigy seems to make about 75% of their decisions based on how much controversy they could cause). All I can say in my defence is that this came out when I was 16, and it did not even register in my teenage mind that I probably shouldn't be enjoying something with those lyrics. It's catchy!

I love Breathe, and always have. I like it better than Firestarter, which was absolutely the biggest hit, and the one that seems to have had the most staying power.

Of the non-singles, I most enjoyed the random appearance of Kular Shaker's Crispian Mills on Narayan. I do think a little bit of The Prodigy goes a very long way though, and 56 minutes is a lot.

I'd like a 2.5, but instead:

3/5

As someone who believes Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy can do no wrong, I was looking forward to hearing this. Ute's voice completely threw me on the first song though. It was a bit Bjork-adjacent and while that should be right up my alley, I really wasn't sure about it.

The moment track 2, The Case Continues, started however, I was fully on board - that song was genuinely great, all stabbing strings and Bond-y. Later discovering it was one of the ones written by Neil Hannon made a whole of of sense*.

By track 4, Tango Ballad, Neil the vocalist arrived. Oh, how I love Neil's voice and the really weird way he delivers lyrics - both loungey and jumping around all over the place at the same time. Their voices mix really well on some Bertolt Brecht lyrics. On the second track to feature Neil vocals (Split), true to form, I loved it then checked Wikipedia and found out it was another track he wrote. I'm nothing, if not consistent in what I like (speaking of which, I also loved You Were Meant For Me, the final Neil penned song).

I think this album taught me that I like Elvis Costello songs if they're sung by Elvis Costello, but I'm not so bothered if anyone else is taking a run at them. Don't get me wrong, I really did grow to like Ute Lemper's voice over this album, but it did veer into Bonnie Tyler territory in places and I don't think that meshes well with the Elvis Costello tracks. Her delivery of the Tom Waits songs I enjoyed more (and I loved the instrumental of Punishing Kiss).

Rating this is difficult. I really, really loved parts and then was completely indifferent to other parts. I think this would get a 3.5 from me, and I genuinely agonised over moving the rating down or up right until the last second, but I don't think it's a 4, so:

3/5

(*After falling a bit in love with The Case Continues, I discovered a live version sung by Neil from an Oui FM Session from 2001 on YouTube, and I might love that even more)

So I like a lot of punk. I listened to loads when I was a teenager and became a big Clash fan as a result. But The Sex Pistols? Never my thing.

Listening to this for probably the first time in 20 years, it's more melodic than I remember. Holidays In The Sun is a great start.

My issue remains however: Johnny Rotten. I don't like his voice and never have. And as time had passed, I now also think he's a complete arsehole. So you know, while I try and separate art from artist, his contribution to this, is a bit shit anyway, so it doesn't help.

Despite him however, this is still a really good album, and if certainly not the best, likely the most influential punk album ever. This has come as a real surprise to me, as I was slightly dreading this turning up, but:

4/5

I don't like jazz.... but I do like swing and big band.

A man whose voice is so indelibly linked to a singing orangutan for multiple generations of children and yet listening to this was so, so joyful I very quickly forgot and was pulled along for the ride. It helps that I have always adored Jump, Jive, an' Wail.

There's just something about listening to an album where it sounds like everyone involved is having a bloody brilliant time.

I wrote a big long review about this album and somehow 50% has disappeared overnight, I've again woken up with a headache and I can neither remember what I wrote, or be arsed enough to try and rewrite it. So:

Loved that it made me tap my feet and nod my head.

4/5

My mum is a massive Cat Stevens fan, which has in turn, meant I have listened to quite a lot of Cat Stevens in my life. There are a couple of classic tracks on this album which I really love: the singles Father and Son and Wild World are fabulous songs, particularly the latter.

I like his voice a lot, especially when he pushes it a bit (like during Hard Headed Woman), plus this is a nice easy listen and a snappy run time. I really love the piano on Miles From Nowhere.

It's not an album that I think is by any means perfect, but it was a very enjoyable listen for me.

4/5

I knew absolutely nothing about the album or the artist going into this. This was an extremely odd album, but I found something about it weirdly engaging.

Some of the rhythms felt a bit traditional African in places, despite nothing else on the record fitting into that category - I was reminded of Ladysmith Black Mambazo a lot. I liked the female vocals generally more than the male, but I was pretty good with all of it.

Also, so many handclaps. I like handclaps.

This is getting a surprising:

3/5

Well, at the time of writing, this album was globally considered the 4th worst album on the Generator.... And yet, I did not hate it as much as The Liars album (6th worst), which, despite very strong competition (here's looking at you Trout Mask Replica), remains my most hated album so far.

That being said, this was not good. It wasn't the worst thing instrumentally, but lyrically and vocally it was utterly and completely bizarre.

In some ways though, I do feel like my life has been enriched slightly by knowing a band wrote the lyric:

"Cadavers filled with onion rings and feet are filled with glue"

It's still a 1 ⭐ though.

1/5

If anyone says The Doors to me, I think of People Are Strange due to an abiding love of The Lost Boys, so I was a bit sad to discover it's not on this album. There were bigger hits on though, with Light My Fire and Break On Through (To The Other Side) included and I was also very familiar with The End for some reason.

From the songs I didn't know, many of them seemed pretty different than I imagined the album tracks would be - much of it felt far more "swinging 60s" than I was ever expecting. I liked Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) but I could not explain why, even if I tried.

The singles are great, but nothing else won me round in quite the same way. So I think this is a 2.5 ⭐ that's going to instead get a:

2/5

To me he sounds distinctly non-Elvisy on a few of these tracks - hoarse and like he really needs a lemsip and a long lie down. But that's probably because here in the UK, the majority of Elvis we hear is early, powerfully voiced Elvis not this late stage version.

Suspicious Minds is the big hit from this album, and I do like it, but I also already knew In The Ghetto and Mama Liked The Roses (which I don't hate despite the maximum schmaltz).

My favourite bit of the parts I didn't know was the lyrics in Kentucky Rain that was akin to every telephone conversation I ever have with my Mum:

"They said, "Yes, she's been here"
But their memory wasn't clear
Was it yesterday?
No, wait, the day before"

I do really like quite a lot of classic Elvis songs, but this was just middle of the road fine. Should really be a 2.5, but:

3/5

On the previous Creedence Clearwater Revival album I said that they had a particular sound, and that as a result, I kept expecting every song to turn into Bad Moon Rising, yet it never did. I was in luck this time!

I feel the same as on the previous album. It's perfectly enjoyable as background music, I wouldn't turn it off, but I'm not going to seek it out.

It's probably a 2.5/5 but I actually did like it enough to not get a 2, so:

3/5

I don't think there's a lot to say here: it's a brilliant album.

I think Thriller > Beat It > Billie Jean has a good shout at the best three track run on any album in history.

I think it's 80s in the best way.

For the review, I listened to it through twice in a row, then again later in the day. It's fantastic.

5/5

Look, she has a great voice and I don't mind track 1, which I already knew very well, but otherwise this fundamentally full of the type of schmaltzy 80s stuff I really don't enjoy.

So much of the popular music in the 80s sounds so dated, it's fascinating to me - I've heard much older albums doing this project which sound like they could have been released yesterday. But the 80s just has a *sound* - even the 80s albums I adore sound so of their time. I think it's mostly the synths and keyboards.

Unfortunately this wasn't an 80s album I adored. And I feel mean giving it this score, but I found it such a slog to get through, so it's an inevitable:

1/5

I still don't understand jazz.

I still don't particularly enjoy jazz.

The first track made me think of Austin Powers.

I still find the genre name "Hard Bop" very funny.

Calling yourself "The Incredible" Jimmy Smith displays some major confidence levels.

A+ album cover art.

1/5 (but should really be 1.5)

I was not very impressed that the only other Willie Nelson album on this list was just cover versions, given the length of this guy's career and the many albums he's released. At least this had some original material.

The really pared down instrumentation really seemed to suit the story telling, and while I am never going to be the biggest country fan, I did appreciate how "wild west" western this was.

I am crying out for a 2.5 here, but am going to be generous and round up.

3/5

I had never heard this version of Walk On By. It gets full marks for trying something so different, though I'm not sure anything could beat Dionne Warwick. And while I enjoyed it, I didn't need 12 minutes of it.

The follow up track that I'm never going to successfully pronounce, was probably my favourite. However, the moment he said "Your sweet phalanges know how to squeeze" all I could picture in my brain was Chef taking about his chocolate salty balls. Also it's again too long. But it did have a rare occurrence of the instrumentation fading between left and right which I enjoyed rather than it making me feel seasick.

One Woman. Normal song length: yay! Schmaltzy nonsense: boo!

And finally, the track that broke me. 9 minutes of chatting before finally getting to another 9 minutes of actual song should be considered a crime.

It's so hard for me to mark this as parts are a 5 and parts are a 1.... Possibly more 1 than 5 though, so I'm plumping for:

2/5

Unfortunately for The Vines, I always feel slightly disappointed they aren't The Hives whenever their name crops up.

This was alright, though the high point for me was absolutely one of the big singles, Get Free (I was genuinely surprised to see it's not the most successful single in the UK, as it seems to have had more long term staying power than the other singles). Everything else, apart from the, slightly out of place, ska-tinged The Factory was pretty standard "big in the early 2000s" alt rock. Which meant I enjoyed it, but it's unlikely to be something I regularly return to because it didn't particularly stand out to me.

Therefore this gets a perfectly pleasant:

3/5

(Amazon autoplayed The Hives immediately after I listened to this)

I didn't enjoy this. I feel a bit uncomfortable saying that about a non-western artist, but that's silly really, as I don't enjoy specific genres (death metal for example) and wouldn't worry about stating my thoughts on that, so why would it be different for Hindustani classical music?

I don't like the droning sound that punctuated a lot of this, and something about that, plus the syncopated rhythms that were happening, made me feel really anxious at points. Something that this album and certain trance/dance albums have weirdly in common.

I would like a 1.5 star, as it's not close to the album I've enjoyed least during this project, but if I were to give it 2, that would be way overselling my enjoyment. I fully accept this was influential, but I did not like it. So a 1 it is.

1/5

I really enjoyed this (minus certain skits). I've said it a few times during this project, but I was previously unaware until I did this project how much I appreciate this era of rap and hiphop. I love the use of sampling that the 80s and early 90s had, and this album is an excellent example of that. So many funk and soul hooks!

I already knew the singles that got big in the UK (3 Is The Magic Number, Eye Know and Me Myself and I) but nothing else. I could have done without the creepy whispering about dandruff (Can U Keep A Secret) and the orgy skit, sorry the "orgee" skit, but otherwise I had a great time listening to this and would absolutely listen to it again.

4/5

I don't like Kanye's voice, rapping cadence or (for the most part) his lyrical content. I was ok with the actual beats and instrumentation, which were quite rocky/heavy, although this did feel a bit samey over the course of the whole record.

I have said before that I intensely dislike Kanye as a human being, and I am sure that influences my approach to these records, even though I do try and put that aside. I certainly only listened to this once, even though I often properly listen to a 1001 album through once, then skim through it a second time to really confirm my feelings. It does really bug me that his album reviews are attracting 1 star reviews for reasons other than the music though.

If you don't want to give him your £0.0001 of streaming revenue, I absolutely cannot fault you, but that's when you leave a comment about him being a terrible human being (because he has demonstrated he is multiple times), mark it "Did Not Listen" and move on.

1 star for the man (but only because it's not possible to give him 0 stars).

2 stars for the record (because much as I dislike a lot of this, is far from the worst content the generator has provided).

2/5